About

Mission Statement:  Asthma History is a living history of asthma, allergies, inhalers, and respiratory therapy.  It's essentially a history of difficulty breathing.

Asthma History:  Asthma-like symptoms were first described as far back as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, with the term asthma being first used by ancient Greek scribes to describe short, gasping breaths.  Its Greek form was ἅσθμα. Around 800 B.C. Homer mentioned asthma in his epic poem The Iliad.  He used it to refer to dyspnea (air hunger) from exertion and from mortal battle wounds. Four hundred years later the term was defined for the medical community by Hippocrates.  The term was then used for most of history as a rubric term covering any medical condition causing dyspnea.  Slowly, as time progressed, the term was further defined by physicians, with diseases such as cardiac asthma, kidney asthma, bronchitis, and catarrh (allergies or the common cold) branching off to become disease entities of their own. In this way, all respiratory ailments owe their roots to asthma.

Relevant Information. If you have information about the history of asthma, COPD, allergies, inhalers, respiratory, etc. that you would like to share, please feel free to contact me. Likewise, if you are doing a project of your own and you have a question or need further information, feel free to contact me.

Contact information:  You can contact me by using the Contactr link in the right-hand column of this and all my blogs.

Reference information:  References are listed with links to sources on every article published on this website. They may be used to further advance any attempt to recreate history.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind this is a blog written, edited, and published by the same person. Research is conducted, and blog posts are written, in the few free hours that come available in an otherwise busy life as a husband, dad, respiratory therapist, columnist, and blogger.  This blog has been put together in good faith to share what I have learned about our history.

Blogger. I have decided to keep this blog here at Blogspot.com with the implicit intent that it should stay up and continue to provide free information to the world long after my demise.

Advertising. At the present time I do not have ads on this blog, nor do I in any way intend to profit off this project. This blog is essentially my way of paying it forward for all those who have benefited me, other asthmatics, or the asthma community as a whole. However, if you would like to place a relevant ad on this site, I'd be willing to talk. I would probably donate any profits to charity.